The performance itself is only part of the story. What you do in the hours before and after is where the real vocal protection happens.

I’ve worked with professional singers for over 40 years — artists who perform night after night, tour after tour, year after year. The ones who keep their voices are not the ones who got lucky. They’re the ones who built rituals around their instrument and protected it like the irreplaceable thing it is.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument. 

Here’s where to start.

1. Begin Your Warmup with Release, Not Scales

Most singers warm up by running scales. I understand the instinct. But if you haven’t first released the tension in your jaw, tongue, neck, and larynx, those scales are landing on a constricted instrument.

The warmup sequence that actually prepares a voice for performance begins with release work: laryngeal massage, jaw release, tongue release. Only then do you layer in exercises that build toward full vocal function. This is the sequence I use in my Singer’s Gift Vocal Warmups, and it’s what separates a warmup that truly opens the voice from one that just passes the time before a show.

Try this:

• Begin every warmup with 3–5 minutes of release work before any pitch: laryngeal massage, jaw drop and release, tongue stretches, slow neck rolls. Only then move into easy humming and scales.
• Use the Singer’s Gift Vocal Warmups sequence — it’s built specifically to release tension first, then layer in vocal function. That sequence matters. Don’t skip to the scales.
• A free voice at 60% warmup beats a tense voice at 100%. If you’re short on time, spend it on release work, not scales.

Learn how to warm up your voice and expand your range.

2. Steam, Don’t Just Drink Water

Hydration is essential. But here’s something most singers don’t know: the water you drink takes hours to reach the vocal folds. Systemic hydration works over time, not in the hour before a show.

Direct steam — from a personal facial steamer, or a steam room — provides immediate surface hydration to the mucous membrane at the folds. It’s the fastest way to address surface dryness before a performance. Both are important. But only one is immediate.

Try this:

• Invest in a personal facial steamer — used for 5–10 minutes before a performance, it provides immediate hydration to the mucosal surface of the folds.
• Use the steamer both before and after performances on heavy show days. Before: prepares the surface. After: supports recovery alongside cooldown exercises.
• Continue drinking water consistently through the day — systemic hydration is the long-game. But don’t rely on it the hour before a show. That’s what steam is for.

3. Cooldown Immediately After the Performance

The window right after a performance is the most important for vocal recovery. The folds are inflamed. The surrounding muscles are fatigued. The longer you wait to address that, the longer recovery takes.

Ten minutes of aspirated “ee” exercises immediately after singing — before the afterparty, before the conversation at the merch table, before anything else — dramatically changes how your voice feels the next morning. I’ve made this non-negotiable for every artist I’ve coached. It becomes a ritual, and it becomes one of the things they are most grateful for.

Try this:

• As soon as the last note is done — before you speak to anyone — find a quiet corner and do 10 minutes of aspirated “ee” descending exercises. Make this non-negotiable.
• Keep a steamer in your green room or backstage bag. Steam for 5 minutes, then go straight into cooldown exercises. Those two things together are the most powerful post-show recovery combination I know.
• Tell your team: you have a 15-minute post-show ritual. Protect that window. The conversations and celebrations can wait. The voice cannot.

Learn more on why vocal cooldowns transform your voice.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which includes my Vocal Rescue Kit. This is a complete spectrum of vocal techniques and holistic remedies to restore your singing and speaking voice, as well as prevent vocal issues for any singer, at any level, in any genre or vocal style.

4. Protect the Voice with Anti-Inflammatory Choices

What you eat and drink around a performance directly affects the health of the mucosal lining at the folds. Dairy thickens mucus. Alcohol dries and irritates. Acidic foods — citrus, tomatoes, vinegar — can trigger reflux that affects the folds from below.

I’m not asking you to live like a monk. But the 24 hours around a performance deserve extra care. Save the wine for the day off. Skip the dairy before a show. Stay with warm water and a little honey. It’s a small sacrifice for an instrument that has to last a lifetime.

Try this:

• In the 24 hours before a performance: avoid dairy, alcohol, and acidic foods. Stay with warm water, herbal tea, and a little honey if needed.
• If acid reflux is a regular issue — even silent reflux with no heartburn — address it proactively. Reflux that reaches the folds from below is one of the most underdiagnosed causes of chronic hoarseness in singers.
• On tour or during heavy performance periods, treat your anti-inflammatory protocol the same way you treat your warmup: non-negotiable, not aspirational.

5. Rest the Speaking Voice, Not Just the Singing Voice

This is the one that surprises singers the most. After a performance, the most common thing to do is celebrate — talk, laugh, shout over the noise of a bar. And the folds have no idea you’ve switched from singing to speaking. They’re still inflamed. You’re still using them.

Post-show vocal rest doesn’t have to mean complete silence. But it does mean quiet, easy conversation only. No shouting. No projecting. No competing with the noise. Silence is the most underused recovery tool a singer has. Use it.

Try this:

• After a performance, save your voice. Communicate in writing when possible — texts, notes — rather than speaking. Your voice has done its work. Let it rest.
• If you must speak post-show, use your quietest, easiest conversational voice. No projecting, no competing with crowd noise, no laughing loudly for extended periods.
• Build “vocal silence” into your touring schedule — at least a few hours of genuine rest between the end of a show and the next heavy vocal demand. Sleep counts. So does a quiet morning.

Read more about improving performance and vocal health.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.

Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

The post 5 Ways to Protect and Preserve Your Voice Before and After a Performance appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

Long before anyone else in the vocal world was talking about cooldowns, I was teaching them.

They were part of my early training — exercises rooted in vocal science that reduced inflammation, protected the folds, and gave the voice a fighting chance at recovery after performance. I’ve been teaching them for decades. And in all that time, the number one reason singers don’t do them is simple: nobody ever told them they needed to.

That changes today.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument. 

1. Cooldowns Reduce Inflammation at the Vocal Folds

Singing creates inflammation. That’s not a sign that something is wrong — it’s a normal physiological response, the same way muscles inflame after a workout. The problem isn’t the inflammation. The problem is when it’s left unaddressed.

Without a cooldown, that inflammation sits at the folds overnight. Singers who do this consistently report next-day hoarseness, a sluggish upper register, and a voice that never quite feels like it fully recovered from the last performance. Sound familiar? Cooldowns interrupt that cycle.

Try this:

• Start tonight: immediately after your next singing session, before speaking to anyone, do 5–10 minutes of easy, aspirated descending exercises. Note how your voice feels the next morning.
• If you regularly wake up hoarse after performing, treat the cooldown as the prescription — not optional, not when convenient. The inflammation window closes overnight. Use it.
• Think of the cooldown as the close of a complete practice cycle. Warmup opens. Technique builds. Cooldown recovers. Without the third step, the cycle is unfinished.

Learn more about keeping your voice healthy and performing at your peak.

2. They’re Physiologically Different From Warmups — And That Matters

Warmups move the voice from rest into activity. They open, prepare, and activate. Cooldowns do the opposite: they move the voice from intensity back toward rest, signaling the muscles to release and the folds to reduce inflammation.

They are not interchangeable. Using a warmup as a cooldown is like trying to wake someone up with a lullaby. The direction is wrong. The exercises must match the physiological goal.

3. The Aspirated “Ee” Exercise Is the Most Powerful Cooldown I Know

The foundation of CVM cooldown work is the aspirated exercise on the “ee” vowel. The aspiration — the breathy quality — reduces pressure at the fold level, allowing the muscles to release without effort. The “ee” vowel gently lengthens the cords and helps any mucus on the folds slip off.

Together, these two elements create a specific physiological response that no other exercise replicates. I’ve seen singers walk off stage hoarse and walk away from a ten-minute cooldown sounding and feeling dramatically better. It’s not magic. It’s science.

Try this:

• Practice the aspirated “ee”: breathe in, then on a descending 5-note scale, let an airy “ee” flow out — breathy, easy, almost like a sigh on pitch. No pressure. No effort. That’s the exercise.
• Do 5–8 descending patterns starting from the top of your comfortable range and working down. The whole sequence should take 5–8 minutes and feel almost effortless.
• If it feels like work, you’re doing too much. The cooldown is not a vocal workout. It’s a release. Aspirated means breathy. Easy means easy.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which includes my Vocal Rescue Kit. This is a complete spectrum of vocal techniques and holistic remedies to restore your singing and speaking voice, as well as prevent vocal issues for any singer, at any level, in any genre or vocal style.

Learn more about clearing phlegm and mucus from the singing voice.

4. Consistent Cooldowns Protect Your Long-Term Range

Here’s what most singers don’t realize until it’s already happening: range erosion is slow. It doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in small increments, over months and years of compounding inflammation that was never addressed.

The singers I’ve worked with who cooldown consistently hold onto their top register longer, recover from heavy performance schedules faster, and report less chronic hoarseness across the board. This is a long game. And cooldowns are one of the best long-term investments a singer can make in their instrument.

5. They Give You Immediate Feedback on Your Vocal Health

One of the things I love most about the cooldown practice is what it teaches you. When you do cooldowns regularly, you start to know your voice. You notice when recovery takes longer than usual. You notice when something feels different in the folds. You develop an early-warning system that catches problems before they become serious.

That awareness is invaluable. The singers who catch vocal issues early — who respond to the first signals rather than pushing through — are the ones who avoid the injuries that derail careers. Cooldowns build that awareness. Every single session.

Try this:

• After your cooldown, take 60 seconds to check in with the voice: how does it feel compared to before you sang? Easier? More open? Still a little tight somewhere? That awareness is information.
• If recovery is consistently taking longer than it used to — if the voice feels slower to come back after shows — that’s a signal worth listening to. The cooldown is your first diagnostic tool.
• Keep a simple weekly note on recovery patterns. Over time you’ll learn your own voice’s rhythms — which kinds of sessions it bounces back from easily, and which ones ask for more care.

Learn more about avoiding habits that silently damage the voice over time.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.

Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method 

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

The post 5 Vocal Cooldowns That Prevent Voice Loss and Hoarseness After Every Show appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

If you go hoarse after singing — tired, depleted, and wondering what went wrong — I want to say this clearly: that is not normal.

A well-trained voice with good technique does not regularly exhaust itself through singing. Yes, a long show or an intense session has physical demands. But the chronic, creeping fatigue that many singers experience after practice, after rehearsal, after even a moderate amount of singing? That’s telling you something important.

Here’s what it’s usually telling you.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument. 

1. You’re Singing with Compensatory Muscles

This is the most common and most overlooked cause of vocal fatigue. When the primary muscles of the voice — the core muscles that actually produce and support sound — aren’t strong enough, the brain recruits other muscles to help. Neck muscles. Jaw muscles. Tongue muscles. Face muscles.

These muscles were never designed to sing. They tire quickly. And because they’re constricting rather than freeing the voice, they create a tight, pressurized sound that demands more and more effort to sustain. The result? A voice that feels exhausted after an hour of what should have been easy singing.

Try this:

• After your next session, notice which parts of your body are tired. Neck sore? Jaw fatigued? Face tight? Those muscles were singing. The work belongs in the core of the instrument, not the periphery.
• Try singing a comfortable phrase with your jaw completely released and your neck soft. If the tone suddenly feels more open or easier, compensatory patterning was at play.
• Start a daily voice-building practice — separate from your warmup — that targets the core vocal muscles. Twenty minutes, five days a week. The compensatory muscles release as the real ones strengthen.

Learn more about the 5 habits that secretly wreck your voice.

2. You’re Pushing the Breath Instead of Retaining It

Here is a truth that changes everything for most singers: more breath does not create more voice. Pushing air through the vocal folds forces them apart. That’s strain. That’s fatigue. That’s the mechanism behind most vocal burnout.

The technique I teach in the Cole Vocal Method is the opposite: retain the breath in the ribcage. Hold the ribs open on the exhale. Sing on the breath rather than with it. When you learn to do this, the voice is sustained by pressure — not force. It’s the difference between a candle and a blowtorch. One is controlled and long-lasting. The other burns bright and burns out.

Try this:

• Breathe in and feel the ribs expand. On the exhale, hold them open — don’t let them collapse — especially in the first moments of the phrase. That held expansion is what supports the voice.
• Practice singing a simple phrase using noticeably less air than feels natural. If the tone holds or improves, you’ve been pushing. Reduction is the fix.
• Think of your breath as fuel in a tank. The goal is to use it efficiently over the length of a phrase — not burn it in the first two seconds. Retention, not release.

3. You’re Warming Up But Not Building the Instrument

A warmup prepares the voice to sing. It does not strengthen the voice. Without voice-building exercises — a specific category of technique work that targets the core muscles of the vocal instrument — singers stay on a treadmill of warm up, perform, fatigue, repeat.

Real vocal strength comes from consistent, targeted voice-building practice. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, using the right exercises. Over time, the instrument strengthens, the compensatory patterns release, and singing becomes easier — not harder — as you go.

Try this:

• Evaluate your current practice: are you only doing warmups and then singing repertoire? If so, you’re maintaining, not building. Add dedicated voice-building exercises — a different category of work entirely.
• Notice whether your voice feels stronger at the end of a practice week than at the beginning. If it doesn’t, the practice isn’t building anything. It’s just warming and cooling.
• The Cole Vocal Method organizes voice-building into 20-minute daily sessions that compound over time. That’s the model: short, consistent, targeted — not long and exhausting.

Learn more about what voice-building actually means and why warmups aren’t enough.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which is introduced in my Vocal Freedom Circle. With this program, used by Grammy winning singers and independent artists alike, you can transform your voice in just 20 minutes a day and step into your best voice ever.

4. You’re Skipping the Cooldown

Inflammation at the vocal folds is a normal physiological response to singing. The same way muscles inflame after exercise. Without a cooldown, that inflammation sits and compounds.

Singers who skip cooldowns consistently report more next-day hoarseness, slower recovery between shows, and a gradual erosion of range and ease over months and years. The singers who cooldown — using aspirated “ee” exercises immediately after performing — recover faster, stay healthier, and sing better longer.

It’s ten minutes. It’s the most underused tool in the singer’s toolkit.

Try this:

• Commit to 10 minutes of cooldown exercises immediately after every singing session — before speaking, before checking the phone, before anything else.
• Use aspirated descending “ee” exercises: breathy, easy, no effort. The aspiration lowers pressure at the folds; the descent moves the voice gently back toward rest.
• Track your next-morning voice over two weeks with cooldowns versus without. The difference in hoarseness and recovery speed is usually immediate and unmistakable.

Learn more about natural and holistic ways to heal and restore your voice.

5. Your Tension Is Never Fully Released

Residual jaw, neck, and laryngeal tension accumulates with every session. If it’s never addressed — if you’re just warming up and diving in without any real release work — each session begins with a layer of unresolved tension from the last one.

Over time, that builds into a chronic state of constriction. The voice is never truly free. And a voice that isn’t free has to work harder for everything it produces — harder for the middle notes, harder for the top, harder just to speak.

Laryngeal massage and manipulation techniques, practiced consistently before and after singing, are the most direct way I know to break this cycle. They’re part of every program I teach, for exactly this reason.

Ready to go deeper?

Try this:

• Before every session, spend 3–5 minutes on release work: laryngeal massage, jaw drop and release, neck rolls, gentle humming. Arrive at your first note with an already-open instrument.
• After each session, do the same: massage the jaw hinges, release the neck, breathe out slowly with a relaxed face and throat. Signal to the body that the work is done.
• If you consistently start sessions feeling tighter than the last one ended, the tension is compounding between sessions. A pre-session release routine is the most direct fix.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.

Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

The post 5 Secrets to Stop Going Hoarse After Singing appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

Vocal tension is one of the most common issues I see in singers — and one of the most misunderstood.

Most singers who have it don’t know they have it. They think their voice is just “that way.” A little tight in the upper register. A little pressed in the middle. Tired after shows. That’s just what singing feels like — right?

No. It’s not.

A free voice doesn’t strain. It doesn’t tire from normal singing. It doesn’t feel tight. If yours does, tension is most likely the culprit. Here’s how to identify it — and what to do about it.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument. 

Sign #1: Your Throat Tightens as You Approach the Upper Register

This is the most universal signal. As singers move toward the top of their range, the throat closes slightly — a protective bracing response. In biomechanical terms, it’s compensatory muscle patterning: the surrounding muscles are doing what the core vocal muscles should be doing.

This isn’t a range problem. It’s a tension problem masquerading as a range problem. The notes are in there. The tension is blocking them.

Try this:

• Sing an ascending scale and pay attention to the first note where something shifts — a tightening, a brace, a slight push. That’s your tension threshold. That note is where your training needs to happen.
• On that threshold note, stop and release everything — drop the jaw, soften the neck, breathe out slowly. Then try the note again with as little physical effort as possible. Notice if it improves.
• Don’t avoid the upper register because it feels tight. Avoidance strengthens the tension. Instead, approach those notes slowly, gently, with a clear intention to release rather than reach.

Learn more about releasing tension and stress in the larynx. 

Sign #2: Your Jaw Juts Forward or Locks When You Sing

Jaw tension is one of the most underdiagnosed vocal issues. A tight jaw constricts the resonating space of the voice and forces the throat to compensate, creating a pressed, pushed sound.

Try this: check yourself mid-phrase. Is your jaw relaxed and slightly dropped? Or is it thrust forward, locked at the hinge, or held tightly? Most singers are surprised by how much jaw involvement they carry without realizing it.

Try this:

• Sing a phrase and stop mid-sentence. Where is your jaw right now? Is it dropped and relaxed, or pushed forward, locked, or gripped at the hinge? Most singers are surprised by what they find.
• Practice jaw release before every session: open the mouth wide, then let the jaw hang completely loose. Gently massage the jaw hinges with your fingertips for 30 seconds.
• On vowels that open the mouth wide — “AH,” “AY” — practice letting the jaw drop down rather than push forward. Down is open. Forward is tense.

Learn more about how to release jaw tension as a singer.

Sign #3: Your Tone Sounds Pressed or Pinched Even on Easy Notes

When a voice sounds squeezed or effortful in the mid-range — on notes that should feel easy — that’s chronic laryngeal tension. The instrument is under chronic grip, even at rest.

This kind of tension doesn’t warm through. You can do scales for an hour and it won’t release it. It requires targeted tension-release work: laryngeal massage, manipulation techniques, and specific exercises designed to release the muscles that surround and constrict the voice.

Try this:

• If the mid-range sounds pressed, don’t add more warmup — add release work. Laryngeal massage, aspirated exercises, and gentle humming on an “mm” before any scales.
• Try singing a familiar phrase at half volume. Does the pressed quality ease when the demand is lower? If yes, the tension is compensatory — the voice is working harder than it needs to.
• Note which vowels feel the most constricted. Tension often clusters on specific vowels — usually “EE” and “EH.” Those are the ones to address in your technique work.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which begins with my Singer’s Gift Vocal Warm Ups. You can sing better high notes with this complete set of warm ups used by Grammy winning singers and independent artists alike to fully prepare their voice to hit any note in just 20 minutes a day.

Sign #4: You’re Hoarse After Moderate Singing

Hoarseness after a big performance or a long night of singing is one thing. Hoarseness after a normal rehearsal or a moderate practice session is something else entirely.

That low-grade post-singing hoarseness is almost always a sign of chronic tension — the folds are being overworked by the surrounding muscles that are compensating for a lack of core vocal strength. Cooldown exercises, particularly aspirated “ee”-based exercises, are the most immediate form of relief. But the long-term solution is rebuilding the foundation.

Try this:

• After any singing session — rehearsal, practice, performance — do 10 minutes of aspirated “ee” cooldown exercises before speaking to anyone. That window is when recovery is most responsive.
• If you’re consistently hoarse the next morning after moderate singing, track how much you spoke post-session. The speaking voice after performance is often the real culprit.
• Steam before bed on heavy performance days. Direct steam to the folds reduces surface inflammation and can dramatically improve how the voice feels the following morning.

Sign #5: You Feel Physical Fatigue in the Neck, Jaw, or Face After Singing

This one is a clear diagnostic signal. The neck, jaw, and face are not singing muscles. If they’re tired after you sing, they were working. And they were working because the primary muscles weren’t strong enough to carry the load.

Laryngeal massage and manipulation techniques — a core part of my Singer’s Gift Vocal Warmups — are specifically designed to release these compensatory muscles before and after singing. With consistent practice, the primary muscles strengthen, the compensatory ones let go, and the voice begins to function the way it was designed to.

Try this:

• After singing, check in with your neck, jaw, and face. Are they tired? If yes, those muscles were compensating. Make note of it — that’s data about where your core strength needs to grow.
• Incorporate laryngeal massage into your pre-singing routine: use fingertips to gently release the muscles around the larynx before you sing a single note. A free larynx produces a free sound.
• The goal over time is to finish a session with the throat feeling more open than when you started — not tighter. If the opposite is consistently true, the technique needs to change.

Free from the inside out.

Learn more about reducing muscle tension dysphonia.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.

Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method 

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

The post 5 Signs and Fixes to Stop Throat Tension When Singing appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

Every singer wants more voice. More resonance. More presence. That quality where the sound fills the room without any sense of effort.

Most singers chase it by pushing harder. More air, more volume, more tension. And it works — temporarily. But the voice that comes from pushing is never the voice you actually want. It’s effortful, uneven, and over time, damaging.

The voice you’re after — the big, rich, resonant one — comes from working with your instrument, not against it. Here’s how.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument. 

1. “Drink the Tone” Instead of Pushing Sound Forward

In the Cole Vocal Method, one of my most transformative techniques is what I call “drinking the tone.” Instead of projecting sound outward — which most singers instinctively do — you draw the sound inward and back.

Here’s a simple way to feel it: put your hand in front of your face, fingers pointing toward you. Lift your chest slightly and sing an “AHHH.” As you sing, slowly draw your hand back toward your face as if you’re pulling the sound toward you. Most singers feel the throat open and the resonance shift immediately. That’s the voice opening up — not from effort, but from release.

Try this:

• Put your hand in front of your face, fingers toward you. Sing an “AHHH” and slowly draw the hand toward your face as if pulling the sound in. Notice what opens in the throat.
• Resist the impulse to project outward. Instead, direct attention to the space behind the sound — the back of the throat, the chest. Let the resonance find its own size.
• Practice this on a single comfortable pitch first, then carry the sensation into a scale. One note at a time until the feeling of drawing in becomes the default.

Here are more tips for getting more sound and power without straining.

2. Master Rib Expansion and Breath Retention

A bigger voice isn’t fueled by more air — it’s fueled by better air management.

Take a deep breath and let the ribs expand outward. Now, on your exhale — especially the first few seconds — focus on keeping those ribs expanded. Don’t let them collapse inward. That moment of retention is where real breath support lives. It creates subglottal pressure that sustains and amplifies the voice without forcing the throat.

Singers who master this technique consistently report more sound with less effort. It’s one of the most impactful physical shifts you can make.

Try this:

• Take a full breath and expand the ribs outward. On the exhale — especially the first two seconds — focus entirely on keeping those ribs from collapsing. Sing on that held expansion.
• Practice the rib hold on a single “AHHH” first without singing, then add pitch. Most singers feel an immediate increase in resonance and ease when they stop letting the ribs drop.
• If you run out of breath quickly or feel the tone thin after a few seconds, the ribs are collapsing. That’s the habit to retrain — not the breath capacity.

3. Build True Laryngeal Resistance

Vocal power without strain requires your vocal folds to meet the breath with strength. Not to be blown apart by it — to resist it. This is called laryngeal resistance, and it’s the foundation of a truly powerful singing voice.

This is not something warmups build. Warmups prepare the voice to sing. Laryngeal resistance is developed through specific voice-building exercises that target the core muscles of the instrument — the kind I teach inside the Cole Vocal Method. Think of it as the difference between stretching before a run and actually training your legs to be stronger.

Try this:

• Understand that laryngeal resistance is built through specific voice-building exercises — not warmups. If you’re only warming up, you’re preparing the instrument but not strengthening it.
• Notice if your voice feels depleted after singing rather than warmed up. That depletion is the gap between what you’re asking the voice to do and the core strength available to do it.
• Start with 20 minutes of daily CVM voice-building practice. The strength compounds over weeks. The voice that felt strained at the top of an hour will start to feel easy.

Read more on 7 vocal methods to make your voice rule the world.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which is introduced in my Vocal Freedom Circle. With this program, used by Grammy winning singers and independent artists alike, you can transform your voice in just 20 minutes a day and step into your best voice ever.

4. Drop the Back of the Tongue

Watch a great singer belt a big note. You’ll often see their whole throat open up — you can practically see their tonsils. That’s not an accident. That’s the back of the tongue dropping down and back, opening the pharyngeal space and allowing the voice to resonate freely.

When the tongue pulls back and rises — which happens instinctively when singers tighten up — it constricts the resonating space and creates a pressed, thin sound. Practice on an “AH” vowel: sing “KAH” and notice whether the back of the tongue drops after the K. Look in a mirror. That drop is worth practicing deliberately.

Try this:

• Sing “KAH” on a comfortable pitch and watch in a mirror. Does the back of the tongue drop after the K? If it stays high, the throat is constricted.
• Practice open vowels — “AH,” “OH” — with the intention of the back of the tongue releasing down and back. You should be able to see your tonsils slightly in a mirror on a full open vowel.
• Be aware of tongue tension on “EE” vowels — the tongue legitimately rises for “EE,” but should still feel released, not gripped. Tension in the tongue always travels to the throat.

5. Correct Your Alignment

The body is the resonator. If the resonator is compressed, the sound is compressed.

A dropped chest, forward head, or collapsed posture physically reduces the space the voice has to move through. Lifting the chest toward the chin — without arching the back — while lengthening the back of the neck and rolling the shoulders back and down creates the physical architecture for a freer, bigger sound.

I often say: the voice doesn’t lie. Neither does the body. How you hold yourself is reflected directly in how you sound.

Try this:

• Stand with your back against a wall. Feet hip-width, hips under you, back of the neck long, chest lifted. Sing a phrase. That’s what your body should feel like when you perform.
• On high notes specifically: lift the chest toward the chin and tip the chin slightly down. These two movements together create the physical space the voice needs at the top of the range.
• Check yourself mid-song. Has the chest dropped? Has the head moved forward? Realign and notice whether the voice shifts. It almost always does.

Learn more about voice-building techniques to strengthen your voice.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.

Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method 

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

The post 5 Ways to Build a Bigger, Richer Singing Voice Without Straining appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

In 40 years of coaching singers — from beginners to Grammy winners — I’ve seen the same patterns of damage play out again and again. The frustrating thing? Most of these habits feel completely normal. Some even feel like good technique.

That’s what makes them so dangerous.

Here are five things singers do that quietly erode the voice over time — and what to do instead.

If you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument.

1. Lifting the Chin on High Notes

We covered this as a myth in another blog, but it bears repeating because it’s so common and so damaging. When you lift your chin on a high note, you contract the muscles at the back of the neck. Those muscles pull on the larynx, destabilizing it, reducing your power, and over time, creating chronic tension patterns that are hard to undo.

Every time you lift your chin and “get away with” a note, you’re reinforcing a compensatory pattern. The voice gets through the note — but it’s using the wrong muscles to do it. Sooner or later, that catches up with you.

Try this:

• Sing a challenging note with your chin lifted, then tip it slightly down. Feel the difference. Your body will tell you the truth faster than any instruction.
• Place two fingers lightly on the back of your neck as you sing ascending passages. The moment you feel those muscles contract, that’s your signal to release — not push.
• Practice high notes in your warmup with the chin deliberately down. Retrain the reflex before it shows up in performance.

2. Pushing the Breath

More air does not equal more voice. This is one of the most misunderstood truths in singing.

When you push breath through the voice, you force the vocal folds apart. That creates strain, fatigue, and over time, wear that compromises the health of the folds themselves. True vocal power comes from laryngeal resistance — the folds meeting the breath with strength, not being blown apart by it.

Think of it like a garden hose. You don’t get more water pressure by blowing harder at the hose — you get it by keeping the hose compressed and the flow controlled.

Try this:

• On a sustained “AH,” experiment with using noticeably less air than feels natural. Hold the ribs open instead. Notice whether the tone holds or even improves.
• If your voice fatigues in the first hour of singing, breath-pushing is almost always the culprit. Monitor the throat — a tight or pressured feeling means the breath is leading, not the voice.
• Practice the rib-hold technique: breathe in, feel the ribs expand, then sing while keeping them from collapsing inward. That retention is breath support. Everything else is force.
• On a sustained “AH,” experiment with using noticeably less air than feels natural. Hold the ribs open instead. Notice whether the tone holds or even improves.
• If your voice fatigues in the first hour of singing, breath-pushing is almost always the culprit. Monitor the throat — a tight or pressured feeling means the breath is leading, not the voice.
• Practice the rib-hold technique: breathe in, feel the ribs expand, then sing while keeping them from collapsing inward. That retention is breath support. Everything else is force.

Vocal massage is also a powerful tool to have to improve your vocal health. Learn more about vocal massage techniques to release tension.

3. Singing Through Illness or Inflammation

I know. The show must go on. The recording session is booked. The audition is tomorrow.

But singing on inflamed or swollen folds is the vocal equivalent of running a marathon on a sprained ankle. You can do it once. Maybe twice. But each time, you’re creating micro-trauma on tissue that hasn’t fully healed. That compounds. And that’s how singers end up with nodes, polyps, or chronic hoarseness that takes months to resolve.

Rest and cooldowns are always the correct response to inflammation. Always.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which includes my Vocal Rescue Kit. This is a complete spectrum of vocal techniques and holistic remedies to restore your singing and speaking voice, as well as prevent vocal issues for any singer, at any level, in any genre or vocal style.

And if you want to learn more about the dos and don’ts of singing through a cold, you can read through our extensive library of vocal health remedies.

4. Warming Up but Never Cooling Down

Almost every singer I meet knows they should warm up. Almost none of them cool down.

Singing creates inflammation at the vocal folds — that’s a normal physiological response, just like muscle inflammation after exercise. Without a cooldown, that inflammation sits overnight, compounds over days and weeks, and slowly chips away at vocal health and range.

Cooldowns — specifically aspirated exercises on the “ee” vowel — are the most effective tool I know for reducing post-performance inflammation. I introduced them to my students long before anyone else was talking about them, and the results speak for themselves. Singers who cooldown consistently have longer, healthier careers.

Try this:

• Build a 10-minute cooldown into your post-show routine as a non-negotiable — before the conversation, before the afterparty, before anything else.
• Use aspirated “ee” exercises: breathy, easy, descending. The aspiration reduces fold pressure; the “ee” vowel gently lengthens the cords. Together they are the most effective cooldown I know.
• If you’re consistently hoarse the next morning, that’s your body telling you the cooldown is missing. Start tonight.

Learn more about keeping your voice healthy and performing at your peak so you never have to sit out another performance.

5. Ignoring Early Warning Signs

The voice always tells you before things get serious. Persistent tightness in the throat. A pushed quality on notes that used to feel easy. Jaw fatigue after a show. Unusual hoarseness the next morning.

These are not minor inconveniences. They are your instrument asking for help.

The singers who stay vocally healthy for decades are not the ones who push through every signal. They’re the ones who listen, adjust, rest, and address the root cause early — before it becomes something harder to fix.

Try this:

• Keep a simple vocal log — even just a note on your phone after each session. Track what felt tight, what felt easy, what was different. Patterns become visible over weeks.
• When you notice a warning sign — tightness, unusual fatigue, a pushed quality — respond the same day. Rest, steam, cooldown. Don’t wait to see if it resolves on its own.
• Learn to distinguish productive vocal work (effort that builds) from compensatory strain (effort that depletes). One leaves the voice feeling open. The other leaves it feeling wrung out.

Your voice is not a machine. It’s a living instrument. Treat it like one.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too.Learn more at caricole.com/cole-vocal-method

The post 5 Bad Singing Habits That Are Slowly Destroying Your Voice appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

5 Myths About Singing High Notes That Are Holding Your Voice Back

I’ve been a vocal coach for over 40 years. And I can tell you this: the thing that holds most singers back from their high notes isn’t a lack of talent. It isn’t bad genes. It isn’t even a lack of practice.

It’s misinformation.

The vocal world is full of well-meaning but deeply incorrect advice about high notes — and singers absorb it, act on it, and then wonder why they’re straining, cracking, or avoiding those notes altogether. Let’s clear the air.

And, if you want to go even more in depth than what this blog covers, the Cole Vocal Method is where this is taught in full. This is a complete vocal method rooted in biomechanics and over 40 years of vocal science that transforms your voice by properly training the core muscles that compose your instrument.

Myth #1: Lift Your Chin to Reach High Notes

This is the most damaging myth in singing. It feels intuitive — the note is “up there,” so the chin should go up too, right? Wrong.

Here’s the test: sing a challenging high note with your chin lifted. Now tip your chin down slightly. If it got easier, you just felt the truth. Lifting the chin contracts the back of the neck, which destabilizes the larynx and kills both power and accuracy. Tipping the chin down creates space for the soft palate to naturally lift — which is exactly what your voice needs on those top notes.

What to do instead:

• Tip your chin down slightly on high notes — not dramatically, just enough to release the back of the neck. You should feel the throat open rather than grip.
• Think “down and in” rather than “up and out.” The note feels like it drops into the body, not that it reaches upward.
• Do the test: sing the challenging note with your chin up, then with it down. Notice which feels freer. Let your body learn the difference.
• Practice this in your warmup, not just in songs. Training the neck to release on ascending passages takes repetition — but the payoff is immediate once it clicks.

Myth #2: Place the Sound in Your Mask

The “mask technique” — placing sound in the forehead, cheekbones, or nasal area — has been around for decades. The problem is, it lifts the larynx. A lifted larynx destabilizes your entire vocal instrument, reducing both power and precision.

Real resonance doesn’t come from pushing sound forward into your face. It comes from opening the space behind the sound — inside the throat and body. That’s where a rich, full high note actually lives.

What to do instead:

• Try the “drinking the tone” exercise: put your hand in front of your face, fingers pointing toward you. Sing an “AHHH” and slowly draw your hand back toward your face as you sing — as if you’re pulling the sound inward. Notice what opens.
• Instead of pushing sound into the face or forehead, direct your attention to the space behind and below the sound — the throat, the chest, the body. That’s where resonance actually lives.
• Lift your chest toward your chin — without arching the back — to create the physical space for the voice to resonate into. Posture and resonance are directly connected.
• Practice releasing the impulse to project. Let the room carry the sound rather than throwing it. The voice that resonates freely is always bigger than the voice that pushes.

For more on building real power in the upper register, read singing high notes with real power and ease.

Myth #3: High Notes Are “Up There”

This one is a physics lesson. Your vocal cords are not vertical — they sit on the horizontal plane. Low notes are produced when the cords shorten and thicken. High notes are produced when the cords lengthen and thin.

When you think of a note as being “high,” your body braces upward, creating tension that fights the very cord movement you need. In the Cole Vocal Method, I train singers to stop thinking in terms of high and low — and start thinking in terms of long, thin cords versus short, thick ones. It changes everything.

What to do instead:

• Replace the mental image of “up” with a physical sensation: imagine the cords lengthening and thinning as the pitch rises. The feeling is more like stretching than reaching.
• Try thinking of ascending notes as moving forward along a horizontal plane rather than climbing vertically. Some singers find the image of a tightrope — the cord stretching taut as the pitch rises — useful here.
• Notice where your body braces when you anticipate a high note. The moment you feel that brace — the held breath, the lifted shoulders, the gripped throat — consciously release it. The brace is the old pattern. The release is the new one.
• Work with a metronome on slow, ascending scale patterns — just a few notes at a time — so your body can learn the cord coordination gradually, without the urgency that triggers the old habit of reaching.

→ This is further developed inside the Cole Vocal Method, which begins with my Singer’s Gift Vocal Warm Ups. You can unlock singing better high notes with this complete set of warm ups used by Grammy winning singers and independent artists alike to fully prepare their voice to hit any note in just 20 minutes a day.

If you want to learn even more about singing high notes and how you can hit them with greater ease, check out my 5 quick tips for better high notes.

Myth #4: More Breath = Better High Notes

This is one I see constantly, even in trained singers. The instinct is to push more air on a challenging note — to muscle through it. But more air pressure forces the cords apart. And when the cords separate, the note cracks, thins out, or flips.

What high notes actually require is controlled subglottal pressure — a steady, supported breath with the ribcage held open, not a forced blast of air. Less is more. Precision over power.

What to do instead:

• Take a full breath and focus on holding the ribs expanded as you begin the note. The goal is to retain the air, not release it. The note is sustained by the pressure of the retained breath — not by pushing it out.
• Practice singing a sustained note on “AH” at a medium pitch, deliberately using less air than feels natural. Notice whether the tone stays steady or improves. Most singers are shocked by how little breath the voice actually needs.
• On challenging high notes, think “support, not force.” Support is a steady, engaged ribcage. Force is pushing from the throat or diaphragm. The first opens the voice. The second closes it.
• If the note cracks or thins, resist the instinct to add more air next time. Instead, check your rib position and throat release. The crack is almost always a tension signal, not a breath signal.

Myth #5: You Either Have High Notes or You Don’t

This is the myth that breaks my heart the most, because I’ve watched it stop so many singers before they’ve even tried.

High notes are not a fixed gift. They are a skill. They are built — through correct technique, real vocal strength, and the kind of consistent practice that develops true laryngeal coordination. The reason singers lose high notes under pressure isn’t a talent problem. It’s a strength problem.

I’ve seen singers with “no high notes” develop a full, powerful top register once they started building the instrument correctly. It happens over and over in my method. The voice is trainable, at any age, at any level. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to do instead:

• Start a daily voice-building practice — even 20 minutes, five days a week. The instrument is trainable. What feels like a ceiling is almost always a strength gap, and strength gaps close with consistent, targeted work.
• Identify the specific note where your voice begins to strain or avoid. That’s your training zone. Work just below it, building strength and ease there, before asking the voice to go higher.
• Release the identity of “not being a high note singer.” That story keeps you from training the part of the voice that most needs attention. The singers I’ve watched build the most range are the ones who stopped believing the ceiling was permanent.
• Build the instrument. The range follows. Every time.

If you want even more vocal technique tips for improving your singing voice check out this post on expanding your vocal range.

Ready to go deeper?

This post is just the beginning. If you want to feel a real transformation in your voice — in 20 minutes a day — come learn the Cole Vocal Method. It’s the same method behind Grammy-winning voices, built over 40 years of vocal science, and it will work for you too, whether you want to master singing high notes or getting through a song without running out of breath.

The post 5 Myths About Singing High Notes That Are Holding Your Voice Back appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice? In my FREE 4-Day Better Voice Challenge you will instantly Sing Better and Sound Better. Walk through 8 Sequences to unlock your voice, decrease strain, anchor your sound and expand your power and resonance. Come join me and learn the methods Grammy winners and legends use to transform their voice and keep them performing at their peak!. Click here to get access.

5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Tension Dysphonia for Singers

Muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) is a voice disorder that occurs when the muscles around the larynx are overly tight during singing, leading to symptoms like a hoarse or breathy voice. It is often seen in individuals who use their voice frequently, such as singers, and can result from stress, improper vocal techniques, or excessive vocal demands. It can also be a side effect of neurological disorders such as Lyme or xx that affect the voice.

Combined functional voice therapy is the primary and most efficacious treatment for singers with Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD), proven to significantly improve vocal tract function, palpation, and singing range.  This approach integrates direct techniques (vocal exercises, breathing, phonation) with indirect methods (vocal hygiene, stress management, and manual therapy) to rebalance the respiratory and laryngeal subsystems. 

The Cole Vocal Method has helped many singers recover their voices as our methodology is based in vocal health and true vocal pedagogy, which protects and preserves the voice improving vocal longevity. 

Click here to: Learn more about the Cole Vocal Method

Here’s a quick outline of the topics covered in today’s blog:

• Vocal Therapy 
• Vocal Massage and Laryngeal Manipulation 
• Jaw Release Work (Leeann Rimes – human garage) 
• Craniosacral Therapy 
• Acupuncture 

Let’s dive in!

1. Vocal Therapy

MTD occurs when the vocal cords aren’t functioning correctly, and muscles that shouldn’t be involved in phonating start to squeeze and cause tension.

Treatment of MTD for singers involves identifying triggers related to medical conditions, emotional situations, or vocal habits. Voice therapy can help to establish healthy vocal patterns without inappropriate muscle involvement.

Try this:  

• Fix placement in speaking voice. The speaking voice can cause more problems and MTD can persist. Replacing the speaking voice, getting out of the throat, eliminating glottals and vocal fry, talking a big higher will help. 
• Vocal therapy for singers
• Cooldown therapy for singers. Exercises that reduce inflammation on the vocal folds helps tremendously. 

Learn more here: Vocal Rescue Kit: Vocal therapy, cooldowns and speaking exercises

2. Vocal Massage and Laryngeal Manipulation

Vocal massage and laryngeal manipulation can help alleviate muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) by promoting relaxation in the muscles surrounding the larynx, improving vocal quality and reducing strain. These techniques often lead to immediate improvements in vocal function and can be part of a broader therapeutic approach for individuals with high vocal demands.

Manual Therapy and Massage: Laryngeal manipulative therapy (LMT) and circumlaryngeal massage are critical for relaxing the extrinsic laryngeal muscles and promoting relaxation in the muscles surrounding the larynx, improving vocal quality and reducing strain.  Many singers report success with laryngeal massage, using vibrators, or receiving full-body massages to release tension in the neck, shoulders, and back. These techniques often lead to immediate improvements in vocal function and can be part of a broader therapeutic approach for individuals with high vocal demands.

Try this:  

Vocal Massage #1: Laryngeal massage 

Vocal massage helps to soothe the throat muscles and reduces strain in the vocal instrument. This vocal massage will help decrease tension in your throat and will help too reduce hoarseness that accumulates from over-singing or generalized tension.

• Place your thumb and forefingers at the sides of your throat gently with the pads of your fingers on either side. 
• Gently move the throat back and forth side to side. 
• The laryngeal muscles are all soft cartilage that should easily slide back and forth horizontally in the throat. 
• Gently massage the throat back and forth to relax and gently stretch out the throat muscles to decrease tension pre-performance.
• This motion helps to relax and open the throat before singing. 
• If your throat muscles feel tight, it is not unusual, but it is an indication that you need to work on releasing the throat muscles in this area. Regular self-massage will help. 
• Consider seeing a vocal masseuse or look for an LMT therapist near you.

3. Jaw Release Work

The jaw holds so much. Every time we are angry, that we don’t express ourselves, or when we protect from impact the jaw tightens. When the jaw is tight the entire body tightens from head to toe.

Jaw release techniques can be effective for managing TMJ disorder (TMD) by relieving muscle tension and pain in the jaw. These techniques often involve specific exercises targeting the masseter muscle, which is commonly tight in TMD cases.

Key Techniques

• Self-Massage
  • Location: The masseter muscle is located below the cheekbone, about halfway between the mouth and ear.
  • Method: Use two or three fingers to apply pressure in circular motions on the masseter muscle. This helps release muscle knots and tension.
• 60-Second Jaw Circles Release Technique
  • Method: This self-massage technique combines sustained pressure with gentle circular movements on the masseter muscle to relieve tension.
  • Provides immediate relief from jaw pain and tension, making it a quick solution for acute discomfort.
• Chin Tucks: Improves posture and reduces jaw muscle tension
• Physical Therapy is an effective treatment for jaw release to improve MTD. Leeann Rimes recently experienced a huge release of emotional stored tension working with Human Garage practitioners on her jaw muscles. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWd3xbbDUIm/

4. Craniosacral Therapy

Craniosacral Therapy is particularly helpful when releasing deep tensions that are hard to solve. Particularly when it comes to the voice. 

Craniosacral Therapy (CST) is a manual technique that detects and releases restrictions in the body’s fascia and cranial bones, directly benefiting singers by freeing the jaw, neck, and diaphragm.  Research indicates that CST addresses physical obstructions like trauma-induced tension in the mandible, temporals, and sphenoid, which are crucial for flexible articulation and breath support. 

Intra-oral craniosacral therapy specifically targets deep intra-oral muscles such as the infra-hyoids, retro-hyoids, and tongue, alongside cranial bones, to realign the jaw and restore balance.  For singers, this therapy can overcome limitations that pure vocal training cannot solve, particularly when tension stems from structural issues like a difficult birth or chronic TMJ dysfunction.

Therapists report that releasing tension in these areas improves resonance, range, and ease of articulation, while reducing pain and stiffness in the jaw and neck. 

Evidence: Case studies and interviews with singers suggest that CST helps resolve jaw locking, clicking, and chronic tightness that often migrates into the tongue and neck, leading to a more relaxed and free vocal instrument.

Try seeing a Craniosacral therapist to help release the jaw to help release deeper tensions related to MTD.

5. Acupuncture

I have helped many singers who worked with acupuncture, and experienced great benefits for my own voice.

Acupuncture combined with voice training has been identified as the most effective approach for treating Muscular Tension Dysphonia (MTD) in singers, outperforming either treatment used alone.  A 2023 randomized clinical trial involving 108 patients found that this combination significantly improved voice function, reduced anxiety, and increased oxygen saturation levels in the laryngeal muscles more than voice training or acupuncture monotherapy.

Look for a local acupuncturist in your area to help.

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice in 8 weeks? Come join the thousands of singers who have already transformed their voice and vocal health with the Cole Vocal Method. Set your voice free in only 20 minutes a day with these transformative vocal techniques found only here! Click here to find out more.

Related Posts:

5 Ways to Protect and Preserve Your Voice Before and After a Performance

5 Vocal Cooldowns That Prevent Voice Loss and Hoarseness After Every Show

5 Secrets to Stop Going Hoarse After Singing

The post 5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Tension Dysphonia for Singers appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice? In my FREE 4-Day Better Voice Challenge you will instantly Sing Better and Sound Better. Walk through 8 Sequences to unlock your voice, decrease strain, anchor your sound and expand your power and resonance. Come join me and learn the methods Grammy winners and legends use to transform their voice and keep them performing at their peak!. Click here to get access.

5 Effective Techniques for Singers to Release Jaw Tension

Jaw tension is a common problem among singers that can make singing difficult. There are several options to reduce tension, most of which you can do quickly and easily on your own. WIth consistency you can come to see real results. 

To sing well, the jaw needs to be free of tension. The jaw plays a crucial role in singing by influencing the position and movement of the tongue and larynx, which are essential for sound production. 

Tension in the jaw can lead to rigidity in these areas, negatively affecting vocal quality and ease of singing including a limited range and problems with health and longevity.

Many singers struggle with tight jaws, TMJ (Temporal Mandibular Jaw Disorder) which restricts range, sound, and resonance.

In addition working with a vocal coach and consulting with a physical therapist can also help. So don’t let jaw tension stop you from singing with confidence. 

Click here to: Learn more about the Cole Vocal Method

Here’s a quick outline of the topics covered in today’s blog:

• Open Your Jaw Slowly in Front of a Mirror 
• Jaw Massage 1 
• Jaw Stretch 1
• Jaw Stretch 2
• Daily Routine + Natural Modalities 

Let’s dive in!

1. Open Your Jaw Slowly in Front of a Mirror

Jaw tension in singers can significantly affect vocal quality and performance. It often leads to issues like pitch instability and fatigue, making it essential for singers to manage and reduce this tension for better vocal freedom.

Let’s start by seeing where the tension is coming from. 

Try this:  

• Stand or sit in front of a mirror.
• Place your fingers on your jawbone on either side of your face meeting at the chin.
• Slowly pull the jaw open allowing it to open slowly.
• As you open the jaw, notice any slight movements to one side or the other.
• This gives you information about what areas of your jaw muscles are tightened or shorter.
• If it moves slightly to the right as you open, this indicates that the right jaw muscle is shorter than the left etc.
• And now close with the same slow movement so you can see where it grabs as you close.
• Now try the motion again and when you hit that spot where it pulls to one side—go even slower—trying to guide the muscles to stay straight and not grab there. If you go slow enough, it can start to align.

This motion accomplished well retrains the jaw to align more.  Doing this micro-movement every day will teach the jaw to slowly release tension in those spots and start to realign.

2. Jaw Massage 1

Self massage techniques for the jaw are a great way that you can chip away at your jaw tension. There are many stretches that help release the jaw muscles. I’ll focus on one of the most important and effective here. This is just a start.

Try this:  

• Place your fingers just under the cheekbone in front of your ear about an inch and a half. You’ll be on the masseter muscle, a small triangular muscle that is responsible for chewing and issues with teeth grinding can make it super tight.
• Once you feel the muscle, go ahead and apply some pressure with small circles massaging the area.
• Relax the jaw as you massage. Let it fall open and feel heavy. This helps it to relax.
• Then do a few movements pulling down along the jaw muscle.
• Massaging this area daily will help to reduce tension in the jaw. 

This blog post is just a start to releasing the jaw. 

Sign up for my Better Voice Challenge 4-1 Hour Workshops where you can learn my Cole Vocal Method Release Sequences that stretch the muscles of the voice and free the instrument. Experience more sound and power while decreasing strain. Click here to learn more.

3. Jaw Stretch 1

Tension in the jaw is a result of shortened tightened muscles in the jaw accompanied by issues like misalignment, injuries or structural issues. 

To release the jaw you want to use slow gentle movements as fast, pulling, yanking motions cause more contraction instead of release. 

Try this:  

• Hold your jaw with your hand with your thumb and forefingers getting a nice gentle grasp.
• Close the jaw and teeth.
• Now gently and slowly pull downward allowing the jaw to feel heavy in your hand.
• Open as far as is comfortable, take a deep breath into the jaw muscles and as you exhale gently pull a little more downward. 
• This motion helps to relax the jaw and stretch the jaw muscles at the same time which help to release tension.

4. Jaw Stretch 2

Small micro-stretches will help the jaw release. The more you force, the less result you’ll get. Gentle but precise movements are the way to go. 

How the Neck and Back Tension Affects the Jaw 

Addressing the Deeper Roots of Jaw Tension. Some of the tension in the jaw can actually come from tight neck muscles pulling on the jaw and interfering with jaw movement. And the neck muscles inserted into the spine in between the shoulder blades and tension in the upper back can affect the jaw as well.

Try this:  

• Raise your right (R) arm straight up.
• Put your left (L) hand behind you.
• Hug your head with your R arm.
• Let your bicep meet your ear.
• Let your head fall into your arm and fall to the R.
• Breathe into the L side of your neck and as you exhale fall further to the R and pull gently with your R hand to stretch your neck.
• Repeat.
• Slowly return your head to an upright position.
• Now repeat on the left side.
• Raise your left (L) arm straight up.
• Put your R hand behind you.
• Hug your head with your L arm.
• Let your bicep meet your ear.
• Let your head fall into your arm and fall to the L.
• Breathe into the R side of your neck and as you exhale fall further to the L and pull gently with your L hand to stretch your neck.
• Repeat. 

Learn my CVM Release Sequences and Micro-Stretches inside my Free Better Voice Challenge to release the neck and vocal muscles. Learn more here.

5. Daily Routine for Your Jaw + Natural Modalities

A quick daily routine for your voice will help keep it freer of tension. 

Try this:  

• Apply moist heat to loosen and soothe a tight jaw. Soak two washcloths in warm to hot water. Wring them out and hold to your cheeks for 5 minutes in the morning or before singing. 
• Jaw stretch (above) – 2 minutes
• Jaw massage – 2 minutes

Other modalities:

Herbs, homeopathy, massage, acupuncture, and body work like Feldenkrais and Alexander Technique are some of the tools singers use to help release tight jaw muscles.

Here’s a quick list of some of these tools: 

• Herbs:
  • Young Living Essential Oil Blend called “Valor” helps to release jaw tension and realign the jaw. If you are in the US with access to Amazon, you can find that here. Otherwise do a search.
    
• Homeopathy:
  • Here are some of the formulas that help the Jaw and TMJ:
  • Rhus: Toxicodendron: Useful for relieving joint pain and stiffness, especially when aggravated by cold or damp weather.
  • Bryonia Alba: Helps with TMJ pain worsened by movement, pressure, or touch. The person may prefer to remain still and avoid any motion.
  • Ruta Graveolens: Beneficial for TMJ pain resulting from strain or overuse, often seen in individuals who clench their jaw frequently.
  • Arnica Montana: Useful in cases where TMJ disorder is a result of trauma or injury.
  • Calcarea Carbonica: Effective for TMJ pain and discomfort worsened by cold temperatures and improved by warmth.
  • It is essential to consult a qualified homeopathic practitioner before trying any remedies to ensure proper individualized treatment. These suggestions are not replacements for medical advice just suggestions to guide you on your journey. 
  • This information is sourced from https://homeopathyremedies.org/
    
• Massage + Physical Therapy:
  • Massage can be very helpful for relieving TMJ pain and symptoms by reducing muscle tension and improving blood circulation in the jaw area. Techniques such as trigger point massage and gentle jaw exercises are often recommended for effective relief.
  • Physical therapy can be very helpful for TMJ disorders by reducing pain, improving jaw movement, and addressing underlying issues through exercises and manual techniques. It is often recommended as a first-line treatment for managing symptoms associated with TMJ dysfunction.
  • Acupuncture can  provide some relief for TMJ pain by relaxing muscles and reducing inflammation.

There are other modalities that help as well like Craniosacral Therapy, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Somatic Release, Fascia Release (Human Garage), Chiropractic, Craniosacral Therapy, Rolfing, Structural Integration etc.

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to.

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice in 8 weeks? Come join the thousands of singers who have already transformed their voice and vocal health with the Cole Vocal Method. Set your voice free in only 20 minutes a day with these transformative vocal techniques found only here! Click here to find out more.

Related Posts:

5 Signs and Fixes to Stop Throat Tension When Singing

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5 Bad Singing Habits That Are Slowly Destroying Your Voice

The post 5 Effective Techniques for Singers to Release Jaw Tension appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice? In my FREE 4-Day Better Voice Challenge you will instantly Sing Better and Sound Better. Walk through 8 Sequences to unlock your voice, decrease strain, anchor your sound and expand your power and resonance. Come join me and learn the methods Grammy winners and legends use to transform their voice and keep them performing at their peak!. Click here to get access.

5 Secrets to Singing Better High Notes With Confidence

To sing with more confidence, practice and perform regularly to improve your vocal skills and technique, as confidence often comes from preparation and experience. 

Additionally, visualize yourself performing successfully and focus on positive thoughts to help overcome nerves.

To sing high notes with confidence, focus on proper vocal techniques such as raising your soft palate, keeping your tongue down in the back of your throat, and maintaining an open jaw shape along with mapping the notes of your song into your muscle patterning. 

Regular practice of these techniques will help you achieve better control and strength in your high notes.

Here’s a quick outline of the topics covered in today’s blog:  

• Expand Your Range
• Raise Your Soft Palate
• Tongue Down 
• Open Your Jaw 
• Mapping the Notes 

I teach vocal techniques for high notes inside of my Cole Vocal Method. Click here to: Learn more about the Cole Vocal Method

Let’s dive in!

1. Expand Your Range

The keys to accessing more range is the using the right positions for the head, the chest, and the soft palate. 

Try this:  

• Head position: Keep the head balanced over the spine and don’t reach forward or lift your chin as the notes get higher as this chokes the throat and limits range.
• Chest position: Keep the chest lifted high to support your high notes. 
• Soft palate lift: Keep the soft palate lifted to provide room for the high notes to ring inside the cavity of the mouth. 
• Voice building techniques: 

I teach all of these techniques and positions inside the Singers Gift Vocal Warmups. Learn more here.

In addition, the stronger your voice is in the middle (the weakest area of the voice) the more expanded your range will be. 

Learn the Master Voice Building exercises inside of the Cole Vocal Method.

Learn more about the Cole Vocal Method here.

2. Raise Your Soft Palate

In order to access more range you want to practice lifting the soft palate. A sluggish or low palate will result in less access. 

Try this:  

• Locate the soft palate by tracing the roof of your mouth with your tongue starting at the front. 
• Notice where it goes from hard to soft? The soft part is the soft palate. 
• The soft palate naturally raises when you yawn or when you open the throat to drink or eat. 
• Bring an imaginary glass to your lips to drink.
• Do you notice movement on the roof of the mouth (and the tongue drops as well). 

This is an easy way to feel the lift in the soft palate.In vocal exercises we practice this movement to make it happen naturally in our muscle patterning to open up the throat to sing better high notes.

Learn the method: Learn more about the Cole Vocal Method here.

3. Tongue Down

Ever notice when some singers sing a high note that their throat opens so much that you can almost see their tonsils? That’s a trained movement of the tongue dropping which helps to produce better control and power when it comes to high notes! 

Try this: 

• Hold the jaw down about 2 inches. 
• Say KAH with an open jaw while looking into a mirror. 
• Use a flashlight app to see the back of the throat clearly. 
• As you say KAH, do you notice the back of the tongue dropping a bit? 
• Now keep the jaw open, bring an imaginary glass to your lips to drink. Watch the tongue – does it drop? 

This is a natural movement you do every day. The goal is to get control over the back of the tongue so you can drop it on cue. This will give you access to more control and confidence over your high notes. 

We practice these movements inside the Cole Vocal Method. Learn more here.

4. Open Your Jaw

The more open and relaxed your jaw is, the easier it will be to sing high notes consistently and with confidence.

If you have a tight jaw (common) or TMJ (Temporal Mandibular Joint DIsorder which is just a fancy word for a tight jaw, you’ll want to do exercises to release tension. 

Try this:  

• Hold your jaw with your hand. Keep the mouth closed.
• Then let the jaw fall open and pull a little down a bit more opening the jaw. 
• Your jaw should be open about 2″ or so. Don’t over open. 
• Sing AH. 
• Keep your lips in an oval (long) position instead of wide. 
• This will help to open your jaw and keep the larynx down to stabilize your high notes. 
• During singing, practice opening your jaw a little more than usual on your high notes and see if that helps!

5. Mapping the Notes

To improve confidence singing high notes use the technique of mapping the notes into your muscle patterning. The more your voice technically knows the note, the easier it will be to sing. 

Try this:  

• Map the notes to each song on the piano. Even if you don’t play much, learning the notes of the melody line on the piano will help your brain map the patterns of the vocal lines and program them more solidly into the voice.
• Then concentrate on the phrases before, during and after the high notes. 
• Mpa those notes singing on an AH vowel into your voice. To map them, find the corresponding note on the pian and sing AH while slowly playing the phrase. 
• Slowing it down helps to map the pattern more effectively. 
• Once you have it, then try mapping the notes one half step higher and then return to the original key. This is a quick trick that helps solidify the original key. 
• If you find yourself straining too much, consider lowering the original key by a half step. Works wonders. 

Join me on YouTube – where I discuss content on the blog, voice, and artist development. Feel free to leave a note or question in the comments that I can circle back to. 

This post helps you get started, but it’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to finally reach your vocal potential and feel an actual transformation in your voice in 8 weeks? Come join the thousands of singers who have already transformed their voice and vocal health with the Cole Vocal Method. Set your voice free in only 20 minutes a day with these transformative vocal techniques found only here! Click here to find out more.

Related Posts:

5 Myths About Singing High Notes That Are Holding Your Voice Back

5 Ways to Reduce Muscle Tension Dysphonia for Singers

5 Effective Techniques for Singers to Release Jaw Tension

The post 5 Secrets to Singing Better High Notes With Confidence appeared first on Cari Cole Voice & Music Co..